Child strollers are well known in the prior art. Strollers are available in a variety of sizes and weights depending on the features desired by the caregiver. Often, more bulky strollers, such as the stroller travel systems are also more expensive and inconvenient for storage and transport of the stroller when not in use.
Umbrella strollers are often an alternative favored by caregivers faced with limited storage space or the need for portability of the stroller when not in use. Umbrella strollers are generally more compact due in large part to their simpler design. The simpler designs of umbrella strollers lead to limited features for the user and the compact design, although a desired feature, also results in the stroller often times being too short for the taller caregiver to use comfortably. As a result, a caregiver that is taller or larger than average must walk hunched over in an awkward position when pushing the stroller.
In addition, umbrella strollers are typically equipped with handles having curved ends, for example, J-shaped, which are meant to serve as a handle for carrying the stroller when folded. However, these curved handles prevent the stroller from folding completely flat when not in use which can lead to an inconvenient shape of the stroller for storing and transporting or shipping purposes.
Examples of the prior art stroller handle extensions are found in the following patents:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,625,923, issued May 6, 1997, to Huang discloses a concentric nested tube extension which adjustably telescopes to lengthen the handle. It requires an expensive and complicated locking mechanism to retain the handle extension at the selected length and because of its design cannot be adapted to existing or pre-manufactured handles;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,845,917, issued Dec. 8, 1998, to Huang discloses a simpler version of the telescoping extension described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,625,923. However, it suffers from a similar defect in that retrofitting to existing, pre-manufactured handles is impossible.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,845,916, issued Dec. 8, 1998, to Stroud is of a unique configuration which provides an ergonomically oriented push bar grip configuration but it is not a stroller handle extension.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,988,669, issued Nov. 23, 1999, to Freese et al. recognizes the need for an ergonomic grip handle for a stroller but lacks a handle extension.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,098,492, issued Aug. 8, 2000, to Juchniewicz et al. discloses an extension handle which can be secured to certain pre-manufactured designs. However, it provides the same non-ergonomic handle orientation as the pre-existing handle that it purports to improve.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,101,678, issued Aug. 15, 2000, to Malloy et al. discloses an adjustable handle for the purpose for raising or lowering its height. It does not extend its length beyond its arc of orientation.
In light of the above, it is an object of the present invention to provide the desired features described herein as well as additional advantages such as increasing the opportunity for customization for height and ergonomic adjustment of the handle assembly both when in use and during storage and transporting or shipping.